S.A. could see Stage 3

Plenty of rain, but not in the right locations.

By Colin McDonald :
August 2, 2012
: Updated: August 3, 2012 1:09am

Medina Lake now is just 16 percent full, according to the Texas Water Development Board’s website. It’s almost 60 feet low and is losing a few more inches, or a little more than 0.1 percent of its water, every day.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

The square area in the center of the photo is a field that has been plowed for use as farmland. The site normally is underwater. To the west of San Antonio, there has been very little rain this spring and summer.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Dead trees normally covered by dozens of feet of Medina Lake water stand behind an electric fence a rancher has erected on the dry lake bottom to graze livestock.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

A giant sink hole in Medina Lake is seen in Thursday Aug. 2, 2012 on the dry lake bed in front of the Holiday Villages community.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Much of Medina Lake, seen Thursday Aug. 2, 2012 from the bottom of the dry lake bed, has been dry so long local ranchers have erected fences to graze livestock.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

A long-dead, normally-submerged tree on what is the Medina Lake lakebed is seen Thursday Aug. 2, 2012 surrounded by grass land.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Medina Lake is seen Wednesday Aug. 1, 2012.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Medina Lake is seen Wednesday Aug. 1, 2012.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Medina Lake is seen Wednesday Aug. 1, 2012.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Medina Lake is seen in Wednesday Aug. 1, 2012.

Cattle now are grazing in fenced fields where bass once swam in Medina Lake. Farmers are harvesting tilled fields where sailboats used to cruise.

Medina Lake is 16 percent full. It's down 60 feet from full and continues to lose a few inches every day.

Although San Antonio has received 7.75 inches more than average annual rainfall, the drought to the west of the city and the one that has spread across 62 percent of the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is sending ripples under San Antonio that in the coming week could trigger Stage 3 watering restrictions.

Instead of declining during the week and then rebounding on weekends as it usually does in midsummer months, the J-17 monitoring well of the Edwards Aquifer — on which the watering restrictions are based — is on a steady decline this summer.

J-17 registered an official reading of 641.5 feet above mean sea level Thursday morning before dropping to a low of 640.5 that afternoon. Stage 3 can be triggered if J-17 goes below 640, but the San Antonio Water System has discretion about whether to declare it.

Stage 3 limits would limit all outdoor watering with a sprinkler or irrigation system to once every other week.

Ruiz explained that to the west of San Antonio, where most of the Edwards Aquifer gets its recharge, there has been very little rain this spring and summer.

The rain that has fallen has been mostly absorbed by the soil instead of getting to the rivers or into the aquifer, according to the National Weather Service.

As a result, the Uvalde Pool of the Edwards Aquifer is at lows not recorded since the drought of the 1950s.

From the Uvalde Pool, water flows into the San Antonio Pool. With the Uvalde pool down, the EAA believes there is much less water moving between the two.

The problem is compounded by high corn prices, driven by the drought in the Midwest, which local farmers are taking advantage of by planting a second crop. That crop will be irrigated with water pumped out of both the Uvalde and San Antonio pools.

Last year, Burnell Keller, president and owner of Keller Grains in Castroville, had 1,000 acres under contract for a second corn harvest.

This year, he has 4,000 acres under contract, of which he said 1,000 will be coming from fields irrigated with water pumped out of the Edwards. The rest will use Carrizo Aquifer water. That crop was just planted and irrigation demand is expected to be high.

“I think we are going to pump as much as we did last year or maybe more,” he said. “If you have water, you are going to utilize it.”

The price of corn is just too good to pass up, he said.

The other human variable on the level of the Edwards is that SAWS is not using as much stored water as it did in 2011.

Last summer, SAWS was pumping 20 million to 30 million gallons a day from its underground reservoir and the Carrizo Aquifer in South Bexar County.

This summer, overall demand is down and it has been pumping 12 million gallons a day.

“It is likely that we will be able to not declare Stage 3,” SAWS spokeswoman Ann Hayden said. “But that is a decision that will be made in the next few days.”

SAWS has flexibility to hold off declaring Stage 3 until the 10-day average level of J-17 goes below 640.

Thursday afternoon, SAWS announced it would start pumping 20 million gallons a day from its underground reservoir in South Bexar County.

Whether that will be enough will be shown in the coming week.

The weather service is calling for little to no rain in the next 10 days and temperatures in the high 90s. The next chance of substantial rain could come with a tropical storm now in the Caribbean, but not until after next week.

Medina Lake will not refill. But parts of the lake bed are still green. It's some of the only pasture left.

cmcdonald@express-news.net

Correction: A story on Friday's page A1 of the Express-News and on mySA.com incorrectly stated the trigger for Stage 3 drought restrictions in San Antonio. The once-every-other-week watering limits can be triggered if the J-17 monitoring well of the Edwards Aquifer goes below 640 feet above sea level, but the San Antonio Water System has discretion about whether to declare it.